"The K-T event is nothing compared to the human effect on life on this planet. What species we haven't managed to massacre into extinction, we've accomplished through loss of habitat, worldwide pollution and the greenhouse effect. Hey, at least we're good at something."

Dr. Ian Malcom

Chaos and the Common Man

Back at the raptors' clearing, Alan directed Billy to the front of the hollow tree that had been his home for so many weeks. Sinking gratefully to the ground and motioning Billy to join him, Alan leaned up against the tree and bent his re-injured leg at the knee.

Billy leaned over to examine Alan's wounds more closely, wincing at the pattern of old and new gashes that crisscrossed his calf and lower leg. "See what happens when I leave you alone?" He looked Alan in the eye, obviously worried. "I dropped my packs when I heard you yell, Alan. The medkit I stole is somewhere back there." He jerked his head toward the inhospitable jungle. "Do you want me to go. . . ?"

"No, I don't think that's advisable at the moment, Billy." Alan eyed the sentry raptor, who was keeping a very close eye on Billy. "I have a feeling you'll be on probation for awhile."

"Probation or not, I really don't like the looks of these wounds, Alan." Billy shook his head. "It was stupid of me to leave that medkit behind."

Before Alan could reply, Alex and the twins approached the entrance to the tree. Alex nudged the chastised children inside before swiveling his big head toward Alan and Billy. He stared at Billy with an icy glare, emitting a low, continuous snarl that was almost sub-vocal.

Billy eyed the big raptor warily. "Actually, in his case, I feel more like the contents of a pantry than someone on probation." He took a deep breath. "I don't think he likes me very much."

Alan made the 'query' tones, but Alex didn't cease his almost inaudible growl. Shaking his head, Alan said, "I'd say you're right, but I just don't understand it. I haven't known this particular raptor to 'hate' anything. In his mind, you're either a packmate or potential prey, but he's never shown this degree of antipathy toward anyone -- even the Harpy."

Alex finally ceased his steady snarl, but he kept his gaze locked on Billy as he lowered his snout to Alan's head. The big raptor very carefully nipped the back of Alan's neck before rising to join the twins inside the tree.

"Shit!" Alan said, rubbing at his neck, then glanced sideways at Billy. "And no, I don't have a clue what that was about." He smiled wearily. "Every time I think I have Alex figured out, he does something to throw the whole equation out the window."

"He's a velociraptor. I have a feeling he does pretty much what he wants." Billy turned his gaze to the activity in the clearing, shaking his head at the organized comings and goings of the raptor pack. "How did you end up here, Alan?" He squeezed his eyes shut suddenly and ducked his head. Refusing to look Alan in the eye, he continued more softly, "I was sure you were dead."

"Oh, ye of little faith."

Billy looked up sharply at that. "It has nothing to do with faith, and everything to do with that," Billy said angrily as he pointed in the direction that Alex had gone. "That thing had your torn and bloodied shirt in his mouth when I first ran into him, Alan. What the hell was I supposed to think?"

Alan took a deep breath, imagining that scene. If their positions had been reversed, Alan doubted he would've handled himself as well as Billy had. Would he have been able to continue on, thinking that Billy was dead? Alan shuddered, and told himself that it was just the dampness in the air. "Yes, Billy, I know how it must have looked, and I'm sorry to have put you through all that." He hesitated, trying to find the words to make Billy understand. "But that thing has saved my life more times than I can count." He shook his head. "I wish I could tell you why, but I just . . . don't . . . know."

"Why not start by telling me how you got here?"

Alan smiled lopsidedly at Billy. "You're going to kill me if I do."

Billy snorted. "After all I've been through, just to find you shacking up cozy as can be with a pack of velociraptors? You can count on me killing you if you don't."

"Getting a little domineering, Mr. Brennan?"

"Getting a little impatient, Dr. Grant."

Alan laughed but finally relented, telling Billy about his first meeting with the raptor pack, and the intervention by Alex against the Harpy's first attack. He tried to gloss over his own part in the egg's rescue by relating some of his observations about the pack hierarchy and communications during their battle with the allosaurus, but he evidently didn't succeed very well. There was a damn good reason he had hired Billy as his assistant on the dig -- Billy was smart, thorough, and he didn't miss much. So, Alan wasn't terribly surprised to see the young man's face darken perceptibly during his narration.

"I should have known -- a classic case of 'Alanation.'" Billy shook his head, perceptibly angry. "You could have been killed, Alan. What possessed you to rescue a velociraptor egg in the middle of a full-blown dinosaur fight?"

Alan at least had the grace to look sheepish. "I don't know, Billy." He shrugged. "It just seemed the thing to do at the time."

"And here I felt guilty for just stealing the eggs."

Alan caught Billy's gaze to make sure he had his complete attention. "Billy, I was way out of line with that remark, and believe me, I've regretted it every minute of every day that I've been in this miserable jungle. However. . . ." he indicated the raptor pack as they went about their activities in the clearing, ". . . .it turns out that my objections to your actions weren't even close to the tip of the iceberg. I've seen so much, learned so much about raptors and their society, and you know what conclusion I've come to?"

Billy mutely shook his head.

"That our chosen field of study is the epitome of futility."

"Alan. . . ."

"No, Billy, hear me out. We manage to unearth a few fragments of bone and teeth, and maybe -- if we're lucky -- a few footprints. And with this, we think we can theorize on the social habits and intelligence of something that lived 65 million years ago. It's like a police detective trying to solve a crime with only the faded chalk outline of a body and no actual victim, no weapon, and no possible way to determine a motive.

"But now, I know the social structure of velociraptors, the way they raise their offspring. Hell, I even know they have language, for God's sake, more extensive than even I had previously imagined. And that's when I began to realize that kid's comment at the symposium was absolutely correct about how pointless my work has been until now."

"Alan, you're the one who said these creatures were only theme park monsters, not the real thing. Are you saying you've changed your mind?"

"They may be, or they may not. But everything I've discovered so far here on Isla Sorna leads me to believe they're a close enough approximation. Look, we knew they were intelligent from the size of their skulls, and we'd guessed they hunted in packs after finding multiple skeletons along with the bones of much larger prey. . . ."

Billy was shaking his head. "Alan, you're not thinking clearly. If everything you've seen here 'matches' what we've discovered in the fossils, how could our previous work have been for nothing? Yes, the clues are subtle. Yes, we've probably been making wrong guesses about some things, but so far, all your major theories about velociraptors have been correct. You were right, Alan, long before you found yourself submersed in this . . . environment."

Alan studied his student's intent face for a few moments, then reached out and ruffled Billy's hair. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around." He sighed. "I guess I've been too close and haven't seen the forest for the trees."

But Billy still had that look on his face that meant someone was going to regret having gotten up this morning. "They're dangerous, Alan, and I agree with what you said before. These . . . imitation dinosaurs should never have existed. You're too close to the situation to see that little fact either."

Bob chose that moment to limp over and flop next to Alan, playfully reaching across Alan's body to make a grab for his good arm.

"Alan!" Billy said, moving to intercept the young raptor's formidable-looking teeth from closing on Alan's arm.

"No, it's all right, Billy. He's, ah, relatively harmless. This bundle of unbridled energy is Bob, by the way." Alan spared a moment to smile a reassurance at Billy, then slapped the raptor on the nose affectionately. "Stop that, killer. I can probably outrun you now . . . and I've brought reinforcements." He rubbed the young raptor's neck.

Bob merely made a disgusted-sounding snort and rested his chin on Alan's thigh.

Eyeing the lazy raptor, Alan continued, "Regardless of their origins, Billy, I can't ignore the fact they have a right to try to survive, just like any other species. You know what I recommended to our government when we finally got off Isla Nublar? -- that they take their heaviest weapons and wipe the entire island off the face of the map. The thought of those creatures ever escaping the island. . . ."

Alan shook his head, dispelling that memory. "But Billy, what do you think happened here when things started to go wrong in the InGen labs? They would have known from their tests that the raptors' intelligence made them their most dangerous opponents, even with their smaller size. They must have slaughtered them in droves -- maybe even the ones still in the cages -- massacred like victims of some kind of ethnic pogrom. Bob here is the only adolescent I've seen among the pack -- the rest of their young must have been killed. So, when we took their eggs. . . ."

"Alan, you know I'm sorry I did that. I'll never be able to apologize enough for that one idiotic act."

Alan waved him off. "It's okay, Billy. What's done is done, and we've both made our share of mistakes. Shall we call it even?"

A brief hesitation, then a subdued nod from Billy.

Alan returned the nod with one of his own and continued, "But when we took their eggs, the raptors only did what any parents would do to save their children." He shuddered. "And to think I nearly threw Alex's eggs into the river."

Billy reached out and grabbed Alan's shoulder. "Alan, you're trying to give these animals human characteristics. Most parents wouldn't kill another human being while trying to get their children back."

"Wouldn't they? I don't have kids, and neither do you, but I for one wouldn't want to stand in Ellie's way if one of her children was endangered. My point is that regardless of InGen's DNA manipulations, I doubt that these raptors are any different from the real thing when it comes to the instinct of survival . . . and the instinct to protect their offspring."

"The raptors from 65 million years ago had to be different, Alan. These raptors have had to interact with humans, and you know how we tend to contaminate primal cultures just through the process of studying them."

"Thanks," Alan said wryly as he looked at the young raptor resting on his thigh.

"You know that's not what I meant, Alan." Billy glanced back toward the tree hollow. "They know what our weapons look like, they know what our weapons can do . . . and they know just how dangerous we can be to them." He eyed the young raptor's teeth warily as his jaws opened in a wide yawn. "Alan, right now humans are just prey animals to them. But how long before they start trying to wipe us out just because we are dangerous to them?"

Billy sighed and tried to get comfortable on his improvised mat of palm fronds. He thought briefly about moving the fronds to a spot that didn't have an entire quarry's worth of stones underneath them, but he let go of that notion in a hurry. He didn't have to see the big raptor that Alan called 'Alex' to know he was being watched -- carefully. It was only at Alan's stubborn insistence (and what else was new?) that Billy was inside the tree at all. Billy was lodged as far away from Alan and the raptor family that the interior of the tree would allow, and Billy still felt the baleful glare of the alpha male raptor even through the pitch blackness.

It was not a comfortable feeling.

But Billy hated being separated from Alan, especially after being apart for so long. He had missed the older man desperately, and to be so close to him now and still have to keep his distance -- it felt like he was missing a limb. Although if he wasn't careful how close he got to Alan while in the big raptor's sight, that might become more than just a metaphor.

Even after two days, the raptor still barely tolerated him, and that was only if Billy didn't get too close to Alan. If Billy made the mistake of actually touching Alan. . . .

Well, it's good to be reminded every once in a while how fast velociraptors can be.

But Billy needed to touch Alan. He'd been channeling his feelings for Alan into touch for so long that it went beyond being second nature. It was primary nature. And while Billy doubted that Alan returned those feelings, Billy had never gotten the impression that he was uncomfortable with their closeness.

Which was a good thing, 'cause if he had his way, they'd be getting a hell of a lot closer.

Billy turned over restlessly and heard the softly voiced growl from the opposite side of the tree.

He sighed. Once they made it clear of 'Attila the Raptor,' that is.

What confused Billy more than anything was that the big raptor didn't seem to mind allowing Rex and Cleo around him. The twins were curious, like all young creatures, and the female especially would appear at his feet and chirrup what sounded like some kind of question. Either the big male thought the young raptors could take care of themselves, or he merely thought Billy was more of a threat to Alan than his offspring.

Neither option made a hell of a lot of sense.

But the big raptor watched Alan like a hawk, and Billy had little opportunity to talk privately with him. He had to get Alan away from here, before his wounds got so infected that he wouldn't be able to make the trip.

He wasn't even going to think about losing Alan at this point -- not when they'd made it this far.

And not when Billy had something direly important to discuss with him.

tbc